Mark 11:2

into the village over against you Either Bethphage or an adjoining hamlet.

a colt tied "In the East the ass is in high esteem. Statelier, livelier, swifter than with us, it vies with the horse in favour. Among the Jews it was equally valued as a beast of burden, for work in the field or at the mill, and for riding. In contrast to the horse, which had been introduced by Solomon from Egypt, and was used especially for war, it was the symbol of peace. To the Jew it was peculiarly national, for had not Moses led his wife, seated on an ass, to Egypt; had not the Judges ridden on white asses; and was not the ass of Abraham, the friend of God, noted in Scripture? Every Jew, moreover, expected, from the words of one of the prophets (Zechariah 9:9), that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem riding on an ass. No act could be more perfectly in keeping with the conception of a king of Israel, and no word could express more plainly that the king proclaimed Himself the Messiah." Geikie, ii. p. 395.

whereon never man sat This agrees with St Matthew's account of the she-ass (Matthew 21:2) and her colt with her. The colt would not have been used, so long as it was running with the mother. Unused animals were put to sacred purposes. See Numbers 19:2; Deuteronomy 21:3; 1 Samuel 6:7.